The management of the marketing and sales department of the cbc has filed a proposal to privatize their department.

The Employee Takeover Company (etc) proposal, filed by General Manager of Sales and Marketing Peter Kretz and Director of Olympic Sales and Marketing Betty Chiu, is the first of its kind for the public broadcaster and is currently before senior corporate management of English programming.

Although the proposal has not been made public or finalized in any way, it is understood the underlying principle is that the department could operate more efficiently as a privatized company, with the ability to expand its client base while retaining the cbc as its primary client.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (cupe) has sent out a memo opposing the privatization for several reasons, including the union’s contention that details of the proposal were not shared with most of the 300 employees in the department.

Further, cupe argues that, because sales management hired consultants and worked on the proposal for the last five months, the cbc and, ultimately, taxpayers have footed the bill for a group of managers to establish themselves in the private sector.

Peter Kretz says he’s not comfortable discussing the proposal because it’s an internal matter and he doesn’t want to jeopardize the process.

A spokesperson at the cbc could not shed any light on the proposal either, except to say that it’s now being seriously considered by senior corporate management of the English Television Network and, if approved, it will be put to the Board of Directors.